Weight Loss summarised - Personal Trainer Glenn Hill
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Heya tribe my name is Glenn Hill i am a elite personal trainer and nutrition geek and ladies gym owner in the North East and i am going to explain the fitness aspects of weight loss as simply as i can in this one blog. Not going to talk about nutrition on this one, however good nutrition is VERY important and essential for weight loss and good health.
Cardio
Endless hours of slow cardio was thought to be the way for good fat loss in the 90s and earlier but since then we have figured out much more efficient ways. Dr tabata in 1996 figured out and proved that 4 minutes of 100% efforts interval training has a bigger effect on your body than 1 hour of slow cardio. His test was on bikes however you can turn this method into body weight exercise, running or what ever.
Don't do hours of slow cardio, instead try and do 2 or 3 x10 minute interval sessions. maybe something like 30 or 40 seconds going as fast as you can and then recover until your breathing has recovered and you can speak again and then repeat. Just 10 minutes with maybe 5 or 6 sprints on any machine, this works very well on the bike, treadmill, stepper or anything.
Slow cardio uses a lot of calories during but not so much after and hard short interval uses a lot during and lots for hours or days after depending on severity and how used to it you are, this is called the after burn or EPOC. You need lots of extra oxygen to aid repair and recovery and this process burns fat and calories.
Classes
Exercise classes can be used effectively but not all the time and not the same classes e.g not endless metafit every day. You are not getting the right amount of rest, some of the exercises could cause issues (lots of my ladies getting bruised knees and elbows) and its high impact.
Doing different classes all the time would give you the best results, or do a class that changes all the time, believe it or not most classes you go to are similar each time which means you wil get used to it and it will become less effective.
I run a couple of classes that vary the muscle groups that are getting worked, amount of interval, severity and timings each time to ensure optimum results. I am not the only PT doing this but there arent many classes on the high street which always change.
Maybe 2 or classes a week and no more....
Most importantly perhaps
Weight training - resistence training
So weight training or putting lean muscle on is arguably the most important factor due to the fact that your metabolism( how many calories your body uses) is linked to how much lean muscle you have. There are other factors like age and how active you are but generally more muscle faster metabolism and less muscle slower metabolism. The reason diets alone don't work long term is because you lose weight including sometimes 50% muscle which causes your metabolism to slow. Then you put the weight back on then lose it again with even less muscle and that's why they call it Yo-Yo dieting....
Dont worry you won't become a giant muscly monster unless you are taking illegal stuff to help, for most people putting on lean muscle is a difficult slow process. A very important process though, especially if you are past 30 years of age.
After 30 you lose muscle year on year until you die which slows down your metabolism and gives you the dreaded middle aged spread. So to slow or reverse the process go and start smashing some weights.
For optimum muscle growth look at doing three sets of between 8 and 12 repetitions. The bigger the muscle group i.e: leg, chest and back needs more calories to survive than arms and shoulders, so smash these muscles.
To summarise then folks
- Do weights 3 sets of 8-12 reps, hit the legs hard. ensure you rest each muscle group for 48 hours or more.
- Interval training working in 10 minute blocks, any thing longer than 10 minutes you can start to lose the intensity which isn't good.
- The odd bit of slow cardio which can help with recovery after a really hard weights or interval session.
- The odd class keep varying never do the same class unless that class changes each time.
It's all pretty simple really, this method really works as my clients and gym members follow this style plan with a few little differences.
Enjoy and good luck with your fitness or weight loss.
